


Champion

by orphan_account



Category: SKAM (Italy)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23981170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Of course, Gio knew Martino had been keeping secrets. He just hadn't realized exactly how many there were.A continuation to "Effettivamente"
Relationships: Giovanni Garau & Martino Rametta
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23
Collections: Final Countdown Weeks (1st May 2020 - 14th May 2020)





	Champion

**Author's Note:**

> Final Countdown, week 2, day six: Secret

After scoring yet another goal - and Gio has long stopped counting how many it’s been - Martino heads into the kitchen in search of something sweet to snack on now that his appetite seems to have magically returned. While he waits, Gio contemplates his lineup with a frown, wondering if he could manage to find just the right combination of players that would finally give him a fighting chance to come out of this with his dignity intact.

When Martino starts rummaging into a cabinet with a frustrated sigh, Gio huffs a laugh at his annoyance and his thoughts start to wander away from the game.

Ever since their conversation from earlier, when Martino had lifted the veil on months of lies and secrecy and told him about the mysterious guy he had been spending his time with, it feels as if Giovanni’s brain has been running in overdrive to play catch up. Unconsciously, at the back of his head, he can almost feel it making the missing connections, tying together the memories of what Martino had said and done, where he had been or hadn’t, how he had looked, of the growing distance between him and his best friend before, hopefully, presenting him with an accurate summary of the past two months, double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman.

“Got it!”

Martino appears in the kitchen doorway, brandishing some chocolate with a proud smile. At the sight, Gio can’t help but mirror his expression. By now, Martino has smiled more in a few hours than he had since that Friday two weeks ago which had left Gio so confused and hurt, and had now finally started to make sense. As Martino takes his seat back on the sofa and Gio gives him an only partially sarcastic slow clap, his brain provides him with another one of these delayed realizations.

“Wait, I just thought of something.” Having shoved some chocolate into his mouth, Martino puts down what is rest of it on the table in front of them and picks up his controller before giving Gio a questioning look. “Okay, so, you were with Niccolò when we were supposed to go to that party at Emma’s, that’s why he had my earphones. What about Luchino’s birthday? There wasn’t a thing with your parents, right? ‘Cause your mom didn’t know where you were and there’s no way you were with your dad.”

Martino, who just a second ago had looked ready to go back to kicking his ass, looks down and his cheeks turn pink. There must be a story there, Giovanni can sense it, and it seems like it might be a good one, so he presses just a little bit.

“I’m right, aren’t I? Did you ditch your friend for a boy on his birthday, Marti?” He means it to be teasing and he’s only pretending to be offended, but Martino’s smile falls slightly and he stares at his hands instead of answering. “Come on, that’s all in the past now. And I'm pretty sure that, of all people, Luca would understand. You think that, if he got a chance at a date with a girl, he wouldn’t drop you like a hot potato, birthday or not?”

That makes Martino relax and he puts down the controller, any thoughts of competition set aside for now.

“Yes, I was with him. And I’m sorry I ditched you guys, just… a lot happened and I… I completely forgot.”

Giovanni tries not so successfully to hold back a grin. “Oh, a lot happened, did it?”

He makes his tone a little extra suggestive, just to rile him up and it works because Martino smacks his arm.

“Shut up! Not like that.”

He pinches his lips together as if he was trying to hold back the words but there is a restlessness about him that makes it clear that he’s not going to hold them in for long. So, Giovanni keeps looking at him and waits for as long as it will take, and will keep waiting for as long as Martino is willing to share with him some of the burden that he’s been dragging around for who even knows how long. It doesn’t take that long before the words finally burst out of him.

“You know, there was that party on Halloween, and Emma and I were supposed to meet up with Nico and Maddalena and get drinks before we went.”

“That’s his girlfriend?”

“Maddalena, yes. She and Emma were mostly talking between themselves and he looked like he was bored. But then, he and Maddi kinda started fighting, and it got really awkward. So, when the girls went to the bathroom, we just… left.”

Gio’s eyes widen. “Wow. Bold move.”

Martino smiles at his comment and he looks both a little ashamed and a little proud, and Gio can’t do much more than stare at him. In all the years they’ve known each other, he has never seen Martino like that and he doesn’t know yet how the story ends, but if he can keep him smiling and talking about this boy he likes for now, he will make sure he does.

“And then?” He prompts.

“We got his bike and we went for a ride. It was so cool, Gio, the streets were empty, there was practically nobody out and it was just the two of us.”

He trails off and Giovanni watches, in awe, as myriads of emotions cross Martino’s face. He’s ready to spur him on again, but he doesn’t even have to, Martino just takes a breath and keeps talking, like he had been dying to get it off his chest.

“I didn’t know where we were going but when he stopped, we were at the back of some weird building and when we got in, it was just so creepy. Just concrete walls and pillars and like, vats of acid and dust, it was the worst.”

“Are you serious?” Gio cuts him off despite himself, as he had not been expecting to be suddenly thrust into a horror movie. “Is he a serial killer or what?”

“No,” Martino laughs, amused at his indignation. “It turned out to be a swimming pool. He used to go there when he was younger.”

Gio keeps watching with fascination as Martino’s smile turns very soft at what he assumes are the memories of whatever happened that night. It makes him ache at the idea that Martino could ever think that he could not share any of it with his friends, that he was living and feeling all these things and they had no idea. Oblivious, Martino continues with his story, something like bashfulness in his attitude now as he looks down at his hands again.

“Anyway, we got into the pool and we tried to hold our breaths for as long as possible but then, he cheated and he kissed me. And…” Martino stops abruptly and clears his throat. “Well, after that a guard showed up, so we had to hightail it out of there.”

Giovanni has an inkling that Martino may have skipped a few steps in his tale, but what matters is that he’s telling it and that the guy his friend likes kissed him, so he lets it slip. After all, the story is still theirs first and he can understand Martino wanting to keep some of it to himself.

“We went back to his place and his parents were gone for the weekend, so I stayed there on Thursday. And I’m really sorry that you had to lie to my mom, but Gio… It was so great.”

Martino’s entire face lights up and as he starts rambling about disjointed pieces of conversation, grocery runs and the end of the world, he almost seems to forget Giovanni’s here. He’s staring into space while he reminisces, past the walls of his mother’s apartment, back into the bed of a dark-haired boy who apparently made him feel everything with just a look or a touch.

But the happiness comes with a price and Giovanni already knows that particular story doesn’t end well, because that’s just before the week Martino became totally unrecognizable, the week Giovanni started to wonder if he was losing his friend for good. And sure enough, when Martino reaches the end of that Thursday, he blinks and seems to come back to his own living room and to Gio.

“Then, I woke up and he wasn’t there, but he had left some messages to say he had to join his parents and to be gone before the housekeeper arrived. And then… Then, nothing. Fucking nothing for three days.”

Martino fiddles with his phone as he tells him about gym class, a secret meeting in the bathroom, and if Gio stifles a laugh at the idea, he barely seems to notice. He’s frowning now and trying to find something in that meeting that went wrong, something that might shed some light on what happened next which led them to where they are now.

What happened at the party, what explained the inexplicable, Gio already knows and he’s willing to gloss over it now that he’s got context. He’s made enough mistakes in the past when it came to Eva not to judge, especially when Martino’s got shame and hurt practically radiating off of him.

But then, Martino looks up with a question behind his eyes that Gio doesn’t know how to interpret. Before he can ask, Martino stands up without a word and goes to rummage in his backpack. After a brief hesitation, he hands over a stack of blue post-its that Giovanni picks up before giving him a confused look.

“What’s that?”

“Flip through them.”

“What?”

Martino huffs a short laugh and mimics holding the post-its and flipping through them with his thumb. “Like a flipbook.”

Gio does and when the giraffe appears, he feels his eyes widen. Martino’s leg is bouncing next to his while he deciphers the words at the end and tries to find some meaning in the mentions of a virus and riding lessons.

“He gave that to you?”

Martino nods. “He put it in my backpack. I don’t even know when. Or how. I just found it.”

“And the virus, that’s… I’m assuming that you know what that’s about.”

Shifting in his seat, Martino twists his fingers together before replying. “Yes. It’s kind of a long story.”

“Okay.” Gio accepts the answer without digging further into it because it sounds like a private thing. Meanwhile, he’s still wrapping his head around the idea that Martino had this private thing with someone he’s only seen once in passing without any of them knowing. “So, you know what it means?”

“No, not really. I think it’s good, but I don’t know.” With a sigh, Martino sits back to burrow into the sofa. “And I’m tired of thinking about it.” The lightness and excitement he had shown until then seem to have dimmed to leave him looking defeated again.

“Hey, you know what, that’s good, because we’re here to play anyway.” Gio picks up the controller from the table and throws it at Martino. It lands on his stomach before he can even move to catch it and he gives Gio a halfhearted scowl. “And honestly, giraffes are kind of creepy anyway.”

“Seriously?” Martino laughs. “Giraffes?”

“Yeah,” he says with a vague gesture towards the ceiling, “have you seen their necks? And their legs? They’re too big, man, it’s weird. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I can still catch up with you, so come on, get playing!”

Martino sits up, resting his arms over his thighs. “I’m 12 points ahead now, Gio. You’ll never catch up.”

Gio’s putting on his coat to head home when he notices the empty frame that’s sitting on the floor next to the bookshelves, possibly a remnant of one of the projects Martino’s mom sometimes attempts before abandoning them halfway through.

“Hang on, we’ve got to immortalize that moment.”

“What, the moment when I completely and definitively annihilated you?” Martino’s laughter follows Gio as he picks up the frame and some kind of transparent thread that’s been left on one of the shelves as well. He carefully replaces the sketch that is hanging by the window with his own new masterpiece so he can get the best possible light when he takes out his phone to snap a picture.

“Come on, Gio, it’s not worth it,” Martino protests, but he does it with a pleased expression so Gio keeps going, drawing the curtain open to let in even more light.

“Nah, we need to tell people you’re a champion, Marti.” Behind him, he can feel Martino coming to spy on what he’s doing over his shoulder as he opens Instagram and adds a caption. Once the story’s been posted, he turns around and shows the screen to Martino, then ruffles his hair.

“There. Now, everybody knows you're the number one.”


End file.
